They are.

Editor,

Philanthropy schemes are all the rage these days among neoliberals. The article linked to below about how to make "giving" appealing to rich people applies to instances where efforts to privatize government services like hospitals and schools have succeeded.

Neoliberals champion eliminating taxes -- and deregulation to increase profits -- in favor of philanthropy. The theory is "Why should I pay for it if I don't like or use it," the answer to which is: in a democratic society everybody pays for things they do not necessarily like or use, thus seeing to it everybody's needs are attended to.

Taxes being a duty, a cost of belonging to society, ways must be found to convince rich people and corporations to want to be part of society. A good place to start is to explain to them that, like it or not, they are.

Re: "Donors Give More When They Have a Sense of Belonging" (7/6/2014)